Ira
by VioletPistol
Summary: Vulpes' second of seven lessons. Second part in the seven part sequel to 'Know Your Place'
1. Chapter 1

Vera tried to think of what the pain in her joints compared to.

A gecko bite? No, that was more of a stinging, sharp pain mainly centered around the wound itself.

The day she woke up in Goodsprings? Close, but that was more of a foreign pain, not like a sore muscle or rickety joints.

She finally concluded that the after-effects of a strong punch from a power-fist was the most relatable to the throbbing in her shoulders and back.

Overall it had been about a month since she had come to The Fort and a week from her most recent lesson. Greed… or _Avaritia _if you were feeling real fuckin' classy.

The very idea that she had truly been here for so long was disgusting, more so in knowing that she hadn't gotten one radio broadcast or message from her friends. She wondered if they didn't care about her. Perhaps they simply thought she had been kidnapped by a schizophrenic nightkin or spontaneously decided to visit the tribals once more.

She did tend to go missing for months at a time…

Her companions' absence of contact stung, but her main care was herself. Selfish as that was, it was how the Courier has always been. Besides, it wouldn't exactly help the Mojave at this point if she just up and died. Being a big player in politics meant you had to survive… at least, that's how Vera saw it.

So with all of the miniscule amount of physical affection she held for Vulpes Inculta gone in his latest attempt to cleanse her of her 'sins', Vera decided she would escape that night, or this very week at least. And if Vulpes got in her way? Well, she'd kill him, or die trying.

Sure, he was an incredible fuck and tickled her in all the right places, but she didn't like the effect he had on her.

Deep down Vera knew those lessons were sadistic bullshit, but there was still that nagging part of her that actually _wanted_ to obey them…

She growled at the very thought, leaning her throbbing head back against the concrete wall of the weather station which housed her army of Securitrons. Well, most of them anyway.

A quick musing on the chaos that would be if she released the wrath of her army on The Fort this very moment was entertaining, and tempting, but she was currently being babysat by none other than Lucius.

She caught his eye, giving the large man a tweak of her lips and a saucy wink as she stretched her legs out in front of her in the dirt. He simply glared, though she could've sworn she saw the tiniest hint of amusement hidden under that tough-shit visage of his.

Vulpes, her _master_, was out on business. Had been, she should say, since the first morning she woke up chained to his bed. A memory which she fondly categorized with the other top ten worst mornings of her life.

Since that morning Vera had been forced to sleep chained to the bed frame every night, she supposed as punishment for taking up his bed for the first week or so of her attendance at The Fort. Not only that, but she was monitored day and night by a Praetorian guard, making her unable to get off.

This usually wouldn't be a problem, Vera was a raunchy tart but she wasn't exactly sex-crazed. But considering that fuck-wad of a Frumentarii had worked her up so horribly only to cut her off twice before fulfilling orgasm, it was horribly harder on her body then being under the usual standards.

She pushed down that current dilemma however, seeing as it was either her escape or more lessons involving a similar punishment to the first.

Speaking of her escape, it seemed rather easy with Vulpes out of the picture. Vera didn't know how long his missions lasted, but he had been gone long enough for her to guess that she had time to plot.

Whether or not he came back tonight did have an impact on the fluidity of her plan, admittedly, but she couldn't chicken out, wasn't her nature.


	2. Chapter 2

Lucius sighed in impatience as a rather green recruit tumbled to the ground with a cry, his shattered nose gushing blood down his lips until it dribbled down his chin.

He had heard stories of the Courier's skills in combat, but that was primarily with a rifle. It seems, however, tales of her heroism left out her vast strength. She was such a small thing, really. He wouldn't have expected the power even if she was a Praetorian guard.

Vulpes' absence from the Fort ultimately left Lucius in charge of the girl. Until now it hadn't been a hassle, seeing as she had some sort of sexual infatuation with him. Or something of such nonsense... But tonight was quite different.

Lucius' brow rose as the girl took a blunt punch to the jaw with nothing short of grace, snarling at the guard who had struck her before lashing the chains around her wrists smartly across his cheek. The metal of the chain tore the skin from his jaw, revealing muscle and white tendon.

A third guard retaliated for his shrieking comrade, slamming his power-fist into the Courier's shoulder, sending her skull thudding back against the bed frame.

"Enough."

Lucius looked over his shoulder in unison with the sudden quiet that enveloped the room. How disappointing…

Vulpes stood at the entrance of the tent, his face etched in stone and his eyes sharp enough to send the three guards previously assaulting the Courier fumbling out of the tent.

Watching the recruits flee, Lucius had to frown. Had he not warned them of weakness just an hour before now? Seeing those men—no, _boys_—flee the savage wrath of a girl barely older then a child was horribly disgusting. He'd correct such fear accordingly…

"Ave, Vulpes, you have my apologies." Lucius sighed, his eyes sparing the Courier a glance. Her lip was split and her left cheek-bone had swelled considerably, not to mention the odd angle her shoulder lay in. "How was your… trip?"

Vulpes took his eyes slowly from the bleeding woman fastened to his bed, nodding curtly to the Praetorian as he unfastened the crimson coat around his shoulders.

"Interesting." He replied guardedly. "Has she been misbehaving?"

"No, not until tonight…" Lucius shook his head thoughtfully, ignoring the loud growls from the aforementioned woman who was now writhing on the ground in her attempts to free herself from her chains. "Shall I be of assistance?"

Vulpes shook his head dismissively, catching the double meaning in his question, and unarmed himself slowly as he kept his hard gaze on the wild woman. "I don't believe so…"

Lucius nodded, not trying to deny the dissatisfaction in being yet again denied the Courier, but instead promptly left the tent to deal with the three recruits.

Vera cut her watering eyes to Vulpes, feeling as if perhaps she should be terrified of the steely set of his expression, but instead simply wanted to beat that condescending air straight out of his body.

She did not cry for fear or for humiliation, for she truly felt neither. Instead her eyes watered in lack of control, seeing as her already horribly sore shoulder was now out of socket and she was pretty sure that punch to her jaw sent a few of her more important teeth loose.

"My… You are like a woman possessed…" Vulpes mused, cocking his head to the side. "Why the sudden anger? Have they touched you?"

He didn't sound angry in the least as he strode over to her, he certainly didn't look afraid of her either, despite the damage inflicted on the soldiers previously in attendance.

"Get… these _fucking chains_… off me…" She panted through sore, gritted teeth, desperately trying to suppress the shake of agony in her voice.

The man before her narrowed his eyes dangerously at her tone, leaning close enough to make her second guess her defiance but still far enough to be able to easily dodge an attempted strike.

He didn't need to look twice at a severely broken nose and torn off cheek to know that this woman was rather strong.

However, Vulpes was stronger…


	3. Chapter 3

Vera gasped from the rough way Vulpes forced her shoulder back into place, the very sound of it painful. However, the instant relief was enough to relax her shaky body momentarily, her head resting back against the mattress.

The man standing over Vera studied her carefully, the harsh rise and fall of her chest, the light shake of her injured shoulder, the blood dripping down the curve of her knee from a cut there.

Her behavior complicated tonight's lesson. Another night perhaps, for however disappointing that was...

"It's a shame that you continue to misunderstand me, Courier." Vulpes sighed, crouching down behind her to properly unlock the deadbolt binding her to the bed frame. "This is punishment, not a fantasy of yours. Unfortunately, I don't think I can trust you being next to me tonight."

Vera observed him from the corner of her eye, a throb taking place in her once numb shoulder, the cut in her cheek stinging, her eyes still watering from… the pain? Well she didn't hurt that much anymore… So… was she actually crying?

Vulpes hadn't noticed yet, apparently, for he didn't comment. Or maybe there really was a shred of decency in him.

Vera didn't think she was crying out of sadness, because she never truly had before. Well, only once, when Lily… ah, she wouldn't get into that.

The only possible excuse she could think of was exhaustion. It was true; after all, she was so very tired. And sore. And she missed her friends, those fuckers.

With this revelation it was only a matter of counting the seconds until she was free of the chains. Vera tried to loll about, acting as if she were so delirious from stress that she had forgotten Vulpes was there.

Then he lifted her up by her good shoulder, all but dragging her up into a standing position before leaning her weight primarily on him. She could see his possible destination, the table across from the bed, a chair sitting obediently next to it.

Memories from the last time that chair had been used crawled back into her doubting mind, causing a horribly warm shiver to race across her skin.

_Damn it_, she shook her head stubbornly, suddenly feeling as if perhaps she truly were hallucinating. She _had _hit her head, after all.

Vera concentrated on the present moment, her mind quickly running through all the disabling moves she'd picked up in the Mojave. He was in a vulnerable position, practically carrying her with one arm while the other securely held the chains that hung uselessly from her wrists.

She carefully tightened her grip on the chains, adrenaline pumping through her unsteady body as she prepared to wrap the coils around his neck.

But then she wasn't, couldn't she should say, as Vulpes had her by the throat in a movement so fast she didn't even realize it was happening until she couldn't breathe. He backed her up until her body slammed back against a support pole in the tent, the chains in his grip constricting around her wrists until she couldn't feel her hands any longer.

"You ungrateful _rat_…" He hissed against her lips, wishing he had a free had to pry her eyes open and another to slap her across her dirty face. "You truly thought I trusted you enough to let that little act of yours go unnoticed?"

Vera dared to open her eyes, but cursed herself once caught up in a truly piercing glare that made her shift uncomfortably against the body tightly molded to hers. His armor cut into her, making her furrow her brow as she tried to pull away.

"I had not intended for a lesson tonight." He mused, his tone harsh and gravelly, as he ran his calloused thumb over the ridged outline of her throat. He squeezed, causing a choke to gurgle from her. "But this behavior calls for punishment, don't you agree?"


	4. Chapter 4

"No." She wheezed. His eyes narrowed, tilting his head back in the slightest, looking down his nose at her in the most devastatingly haughty way that Vera almost lost it. She did, however, jerk her body roughly against his, making his grip on her throat slacken. "No more of that shit, I've got better things to do and dirtier profligates to fuck."

Vulpes narrowed his eyes and inhaled sharply, feeling a little worm of irritation burrow into his chest.

He released her throat altogether, only to slap his hand bluntly against her swollen cheek. The force of it knocked her cleanly to the ground, the chains sliding out of his grip.

Vulpes turned away from the Courier momentarily to remove the sheath hanging on his hips, tossing it onto the table unceremoniously as he sighed.

"Ira, whore, it consumes you." He explained casually, listening carefully to her labored breath behind him as he removed the breastplate of his armor. "Very unseemly. Tonight's lesson will-,"

He had once again turned back to face the girl when her hand slapped across his face with all the strength she could muster. Both the action and the force surprised him, sending him stumbling into the table behind him, blood immediately dripping from his lips and down the front of his red shirt.

The Courier watched as Vulpes lifted an unbelieving hand to his mouth, drawing it back to observe the crimson liquid that ran sluggishly down his fingers. Then his eyes, so absolutely livid with outrage that it actually frightened Vera to her very soul, raked almost roughly along her defiant expression.

It was tense for a moment in the silence that followed, making Vera feel as if she had committed a horrible atrocity or perhaps she had broken a priceless pre-war vase…

…_Did she actually feel bad for slapping him_?

That didn't matter, because he lunged at her then, the force of it knocking the chair behind him to the ground.

However, his movements were all brute force, all anger, and Vera's all-consuming wrath had been slightly cleared by the satisfaction in bitch slapping Vulpes Inculta across his smug-bastard face.

She danced out of his grip easily, bolting instinctually towards the tent entrance. Why? She asked herself that as she burst into the cold air, she didn't know, it was the only thing her primal instincts could think of.

Fight or flight, perhaps…

But of course… _of fucking course_ there had to be a God damn Legion parade going on.

Well, not really, but Caesar was taking a stroll with a few of his Praetorian Guards, apparently out to observe the punishment of the three recruits who were assaulted by the Courier.

Vera had to push that out of her mind, Caesar was not her main priority at this point. The gate directly across from her _was_, however.

All she had to do was run across the training area where most Legion soldiers now observed the punishment, up the hill, past the guards at the gates, down the hill, and across the river.

Right. Yeah, that's a plan.

With the sound of the tent flaps snapping loudly behind her Vera took off once more. Where Vulpes was obviously stronger and sneakier then her, she was _fast_. Raul had told her so on many occasions; she had decided it wasn't merely because he was a 234 year old ghoul with arthritis.

Of course, The Courier sprinting across the Fort with Vulpes Inculta barreling after her was an odd sight, considering she had remained rather docile during her stay here. And because it wasn't really the usual that Vulpes allowed a prisoner out of his grasp.

She realized, with a smile, that she was probably humiliating him right now.

The punishment of the recruits halted immediately, Lucius looking up as the speed of the Courier dashing past him stirred a slight breeze against his cape. His brow furrowed in confusion, then rose in surprise as Vulpes all but knocked him out of the way in his pursuit of the girl.

Caesar was the first to comment, as was the usual with these sort of things.

"What the _fuck_ is going on?" The older man narrowed his eyes as Vulpes caught up to The Courier, tackling her unceremoniously to the ground. "I thought that piece of shit was under control, Vulpes."

* * *

><p><strong><em>Sigh<em>. _I_ wanna bitch slap Vulpes.**


	5. Chapter 5

Said man wasn't paying attention to anyone but the shrieking, writhing girl in his grip, managing to dodge a dangerous kick from her muscled leg but feeling the full force of the sucker punch she slammed into his chest.

"Ah…" Lucius once again spoke for the Frumentarii, watching as the two wrestled on the ground for dominance. "The girl has been fine until tonight…"

The men surrounding the scene weren't sure whether their leader would be upset or amused, given the situation had grounds for both.

"It is under control, My Lord." Vulpes growled without looking up from the girl beneath him, striking a punch across her face. She retaliated however, knocking her fist powerfully across his jaw with a feral snarl hissing from her bleeding lips.

Caesar gave a bark of laughter at the scene of give and take; every slap, punch or hit Vulpes inflicted the Courier would return it tenfold, with a cat-like screech to boot. "She's a _child_, Vulpes. Handle her."

Only Lucius seemed to be allowed to laugh along, given the butt of the joke was a man who could kill you in the blink of an eye. The rest of the men surrounding the scene simply stifled their amusement behind strained looks of solemnity.

Vulpes, having had enough of this woman's fists for a life time, hooked his fingers under the hem of her now dirtied shirt, yanking her up after him. The fabric tore high up her chest and the force of his strength caused her head to smash back against the ground.

She was dazed momentarily as Vulpes slung her dirtied, battered body over his shoulder, wiping the ever-increasing blood off his mouth with the back of his hand before nodding stiffly to his leader.

Vera regained her senses half-way back to the tent, giving a mind-numbing scream of the dirtiest profanities Cass taught her as she beat her fists against his hardened back. He didn't even flinch.

The moment the image of the two disappeared into the privacy of Vulpes' warmly lit tent a solid hum of laughter echoed through-out the Fort, only silenced by Lucius' ballistic fist knocking the jaw of one of the punished recruits clean off its hinges.

Vera winced as she hit the ground with a thud, a familiar rock jutting from under the carpet grinding into her spine.

She didn't have time to think of reprisal before Vulpes was on top of her however; his hips dipping down into hers hotly as he ripped the scraps of her shirt clean off her body. The burn of the fabric rubbing tightly against her back hurt, like a rug burn she noted, enough for her to know Vulpes meant it to.

He slapped her across the face once more, for good measure, and grabbed a fistful of her hair with one hand while the other yanked the bottom half of her ensemble until it split down the middle. He left the remains of it hanging off her thigh as she snarled up at him, spitting the clotted blood from her mouth into his face.

Vulpes growled lowly as he pushed into her without caution, no true motive other then taking his frustration out on her. His lesson was almost ruined, given her absolutely infuriating behavior. Besides, his anger had gotten the best of him, something that very rarely occurred. He intended to reprimand her for causing such a break in his temper.

Despite her obvious rage the Courier bucked beneath him at the sudden invasion, her choked off moan shuddering through him and racing straight to the heat of his groin.

His free hand settled against her hip, digging his nails into the jutting bone before helping himself to a healthy handful of her rear.

The thrusts into Vera's body had her grinding against the ground, the very force of it inching the couple along the carpeted floor with each movement.

She had to admit, her escape attempt was absolutely pitiful. However, her body was too worked up now; it was either a fuck or a fight at this point. A mix of both? That was pure gold.


	6. Chapter 6

Vera's head lolled back against the ground as the next rattling push into her body sent her teeth gnashing together and her eyes rolling back into her head. It was painful to be used so roughly and angrily, but the surge of the ache and the blunt penetration was so strangely fulfilling that she almost laid back and took it.

_Almost_.

She used his back as leverage to pull herself up, her nose brushing his as she growled darkly in his face. The horribly urgent need to hurt him struck her suddenly, and Vera decided to indulge, yanking his crimson undershirt from his body and throwing it over her shoulder.

Vulpes shuddered and sunk against her body in recoil to the sharpness of her nails dragging down his back, the raw sting of freshly scraped skin throbbing in the cold night air.

In retaliation he drove into her hard enough to bruise her hipbones, their bodies slowly crawling along the carpet in their overwhelming earnest.

He watched her with hooded, hazy eyes, studying the grimace plaguing her face, drawing her brow together, her lids tightly shut, her body shaking with some sort of all consuming emotion.

The Courier was drawing away once again, as she usually did in the heat of pleasure, her mind would drift into realms unknown to him. He couldn't have that, not after such misbehavior.

Vulpes briefly eyed the fading bite mark he had left on the girl during the previous lesson. It was bruised still, yellow with purple blossoms. The outline of his teeth was rather clear, something he noted with satisfaction.

With an incline of his head he sunk his teeth down into the imprint, clamping his jaw hard, even after the warmth of blood spilled over his lips. A shriek of surprise sounded from the small chest fluttering beneath him, the muscles in her arm tensing from the piercing of the skin.

And then he was on his back, the pain in his gut from her kick only registering moments after she began to scramble clumsily along the matted ground. He gulped a stolen breath of lost air as he watched her, the urgency kicking his heart into gear when he realized she was making her way towards his Ripper on the table.

He snatched at her ankle, his hand large enough to wrap all the way around its girth. With a wrench of his wrist her foot was twisted, not enough to break but strong enough to disable.

She cried out as she fumbled in her pursuit of the weapon, her collar-bone hitting the edge of the wood. The contact caused the weapon to tumble from the table and roll away to the far corner of the tent.

"Fuck…" She gasped as his body dashed against hers, trapping her against the furniture and squishing her thigh muscles severely between the bone of her leg and the ridge of the cheap metal lining.

He leaned down over her body, his teeth catching her ear as he forced into her once more. A joint shudder of a groan reverberated between the two bodies simultaneously, one high and feminine and the other deep and purely male.

Vulpes decided in whatever vague conscious that remained in his pleasure-consumed mind that he rather liked the sounds he inspired in the Courier. Like a feline in heat, perhaps.

He plunged forward once more in experimentation, humming in approval of the high keen that pierced through him, trickling down his spine and settling in the growing heat of his groin.

"Louder." He demanded, his voice strained and laced with breathlessness. Another thrust, hard enough to send the table groaning and deep enough to have the Courier pressing her backside against him desperately.

She obliged, distantly hearing a few whispers and knowing chuckles sound from outside of the tent afterwards.

The whole Fort could hear, then?

She internally winced at the thought of that, but was so wholly wrapped up in the stimulation clenching hotly in her stomach that she couldn't care to spare another moments worry.

It didn't matter anyways, because now Vulpes had a handful of her hair, yanking her head back until it rested against his shoulder. She was shuddering and throbbing beneath him when he began to hush broken, biting Latin in her ear, his tongue brushing against her neck, jaw, the corner of her lips…


	7. Chapter 7

Vera's mind fogged until conscious thought no longer factored in her mind, only the feel of Vulpes' heat inside her, his weight pressing forward against her, his hand yanking her hair, the breath whispering Latin in such a lecherous way it felt filthy sliding along her eardrums…

It was so close she could fucking _feel_ it crawling in her thighs, burning her skin red, stimulating her raw… and yet the orgasm wouldn't be quite complete if she wasn't looking into the harsh grey of his eyes.

Something about having him watch the pulsing of pleasure break and explode in her eyes was immensely satisfying to her. Vera knew he wasn't fucking her for her benefit, the fact that she was getting off on it was simply a privilege. As much as she hated to admit that…

However, the very fact that she got just as much, if not more, ecstasy out of the experience as he did meant that, in some sort of kinky way, he _failed _to punish her.

Well, she hoped he felt that way… it made it all the more satisfying.

So she bent her body in a show of flexibility she usually preferred to never attempt outside of life or death circumstances, lifting her leg up and over him, twisting until she sat on the table facing him, her thighs locked around his hips.

Later she would proudly note that she did so without removing him from inside her. And perhaps she would pass on the description of the utterly strained growl of pleasure that contorted Vulpes' face as she twisted her internal muscles around his girth.

The show and the strange sensation seemed to rile him up, his hands gripping her rear tightly and scooting her forward until she was molded against him tightly.

And then she was completely undone, due to the brutally animalistic thrusts that took over him, rocking the table enough to possibly collapse it beneath her.

Vulpes, for however proud and cunning he was, seemed consumed enough in the heat of the moment with a profligate whore to ache to share their moment of joint elation just as much as Vera did.

With a shaking hand he gripped the back of her neck, forcing her to look into his eyes as she trembled and jerked against him, Vera's mouth falling open before she desperately clawed for him with a sharp shriek.

He couldn't quite help the deep groan that rumbled through his chest at the rolling heat of pleasure thrumming through his nerve endings, even though the sound dominated momentarily over her soft chanting of his name.

Vulpes was so concentrated on the orgasm rushing through him that his senses were temporarily blinded, enough so that he didn't notice himself pressing his lips to the Courier's until she rolled her hips appreciatively against him.

He was not one for… _kissing_. Of course he had done so before, but he was more attracted to the core of actual pleasure, not distracting foreplay such as the meeting of the lips...

Indulging in such a thing was rather interesting, however, and he found himself forcing her head forward to deepen the movements of their mouths.

Looking in from the outside, one might see the two as lovers. Vera's dark hair curled around his calloused fingers, Vulpes' hips slowly rotating against hers as he snaked his tongue along a small cut in her lower lip, the soft sighs from her small chest as she ran her hands along the muscles beneath his pale skin.

Until, however, one of Vulpes' hands untangled itself from her hair to slap painfully on the curve of her hip. She gasped and jerked away from him vainly, his strong arms trapping her to the mold of his body.

"Ad victoriam…" He purred with a dark smirk, his voice ragged and edged with gravel. Then, his expression molded to stone, a snarl twitching his lip back against his teeth. "You belong to me Courier; do not mistake that again…"

For as indignant as she portrayed herself in that moment, Vulpes knew she took such a warning to heart. More so he was sure of her arousal in his ownership of her…

He could _feel_ it, in fact, clenching around him with every word he spoke…

Vera wouldn't admit that…

…However, she wouldn't deny it, either.

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><p><strong>Ready for your next lesson?<strong>


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